Game Reviews

Buddy Rush

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Buddy Rush
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| Buddy Rush

I have to admit, when it comes to online multiplayer I'm a bit of an oddball.

For me, the experience of connecting with people on the other side of the globe holds more appeal than any desire to shoot them.

Most of my time on Phantasy Star Online was spent simply wandering around the ship, marveling at the fact that other people were tottering about all around me. By the same token, I was more likely to be found merely jumping about in Quake III Arena, making rather bizarre gestures to my teammates, than fragging anyone.

Though Buddy Rush lacks any form of actual online play, it does touch the same bases, taking a light approach to role-playing.

A whole new world

Buddy Rush feels much like the online role-playing games of old, giving you a social hub in which to connect with friends before setting out on missions on your own.

The usual line-up of warriors, mages, and martial arts are here, although rendered in a cutesy, colourful style that will make your heart expand with every tap of the screen.

As in any role-playing adventure, you engage enemies for experience points that allow you to level-up and improve your character's abilities and unlock new skills. Spending money nets you new equipment and you can trade items with friends via a handy mail system.

Combat is basic: tap an enemy to target and automatically attack. There's no skill involved - in fact, the game is less concerned with fanciful gameplay and more with social interaction.

The social network

The game's simplicity owes much to origins on Facebook. In fact, a prerequisite of tackling Buddy Rush on your device is linking the game to your Facebook account.

Back at your main social hub, you can recruit characters generated by other Facebook users to take into battle -however, these characters are controlled by the computer rather than another player in real time.

Presuming you don't already have Facebook friends playing Buddy Rush, reaching out to other players means actually adding them to your contact list.

Not only does this mean that you have to wait until they've approved your request before you use them in missions, but it also throws up the possibility of adding a whole host of strangers to your account. It's the kind of potential pitfall the Daily Mail could happily kick start a campaign about.

Biting the Apple

It's also annoying that the game uses Facebook exclusively in the sense that you're required to allow the game permission to post on your wall. Furthermore, this limits the game's potential since there are those without, and unwilling to create, a Facebook profile, let alone grant permission to post all over your profile wall.

Still, the brightly coloured world of Buddy Rush is endearing, and even though its gameplay is plain it's fun to pop into for a quick mission. There's an easy-going nature to it that makes it possible to slay whole scores of enemies with one eye cast on the television the whole time.

By tapping into the same spirit of old online multiplayer games, Buddy Rush sets itself apart from the masses of other social games with its easy-going style. Yet, the forced use of Facebook and simplistic gameplay limits the fun.

Buddy Rush

Though simplistic in nature, Buddy Rush is charming enough to fill a few moments with basic hack 'n' slash role-playing
Score
Keith Andrew
Keith Andrew
With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font. He's also Pocket Gamer's resident football gaming expert and, thanks to his work on PG.biz, monitors the market share of all mobile OSes on a daily basis.